July 16, 2017

Parkway: Social Kitchen Opens Late Summer On The Country Club Plaza

Zach Marten and Bret Springs have been working on a bit of a reorganization this year with their Back Napkin Restaurant Group.

One that prompted them to quietly close their franchised Coal Vines pizza on the Country Club Plaza in March, to give them time to gut, remodel and open one of their own concepts in its place, Parkway: Social Kitchen.

“When we opened Coal Vines as a franchisee, we had restaurant experience, but nowhere near the amount of knowledge and concept development experience we have today, and we decided that we wanted to take advantage of this prime piece of real estate on the Plaza to open one of our own concepts, one that we didn’t have to pay royalties on,” says Springs.

Working with the new owners developing the Country Club Plaza, the two partners say the time was right to make this move, citing they were very easy to work with and supportive of their planned moves for that location.

The new space is being completely gutted with plans to build a sweeping staircase in the middle of restaurant connecting the top floor to the lower level that was formerly used as a private event space. This will create a dramatic two-story dining area that will seat almost 100 total. There will also be a large three-sided bar will be upstairs, and a small 15-seat bar to serve guests downstairs.

The name Parkway: Social Kitchen comes from the park like views the restaurant has of Brush Creek and the parkways and boulevards that surround their Plaza location.

“Parkway: Social Kitchen will be a classic American grill, a sister concept to Rockhill Grille in terms of the menu and the way it will look and feel,” says Marten. “We want each of our restaurant concepts to have a name that identifies it with the location where it will live, so Rockhill Grille is named after William Rockhill Nelson who co-founded the Kansas City Star, that is located just up the street from us in the Crossroads, Parkway: Social Club is no different.”

As the kitchen renovation is being completed in the new restaurant, Executive Chef, Sam Hefter, formerly the executive chef at Houston’s on the Country Club Plaza, has been busy working in the kitchen at Rockhill Grille, honing existing dishes and working on new ones to help move both restaurants forward with new specials and unique menu items.

Marten and Springs are also currently reorganizing their restaurant portfolio to bring Rockhill Grille which they opened in 2016 under their Back Napkin Restaurant Group, along with Westport Ale House which opened in 2014 and will now be joined by Parkway: Social Kitchen which will open late summer.

“Our partners in RND Corner Grille, were also our financial partners in Rockhill Grille, and they were wanting to grow the RND Corner Grille concept, but we were wanting to expand Rockhill Grille, so we basically decided sell our interest in each restaurant back to the other partner, letting them keep RND Corner Grille, while we retained Rockhill Grille,” says Marten.

With no more franchise royalties to pay, and all of their restaurants now firmly under their own restaurant group, the partners say we can look for further expansion plans from them in the future.

“Going forward, we want to be known for opening beautiful, comfortable and cozy American bar and grill restaurants that reflect the neighborhoods where we open them in name and spirit,” says Springs. “It is where we are headed as a restaurant concept and what our experience and success has taught us works.”